The CWTS is a nonprofit organization responsible for defining Chinese wireless telecommunication standards. The group was established in April 1999 by the Ministry of Information Industry, focusing on developing wireless telecommunication standards for China.

Ericsson China Co. Ltd. will sponsor research and development by the group, which has attracted nearly 20 multinational companies and their local subsidiaries to work with CWTS as members or observers. Prior to the Ericsson announcment, CWTS said it had defined more than 40 technical specifications for China's 3G standard.

As China's representative to international standards talks, the CWTS is a member of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and 3GPP2. Both industry projects are producing global wireless specs.

The group is currently promoting China's home-grown version of code-division multiple access technology  time-domain synchronous CDMA  as an international standard. It is also submitting another China-backed format, large-area synchronized CDMA, to the 3GPP2 as an optional technology. The group also promotes the convergence of Chinese and international standards.

The CWTS has six research groups focusing on wireless standards development along with standards for networking and switching, intellectual property and multimedia, transmission and network access, network management and power supplies.

Since its establishment, the CWTS has benefited from China's preliminary research on 3G standards and has defined 41 technology specs. China will gradually adopt its own 3G standards and incorporate all of them into its current five-year economic plan, officials here said. Key areas include the transition from Global System for Mobile Communications to 3G, defining the IMT-2000 standard for 3G and completing a post-IMT-2000 standard.

CWTS members include manufacturers, operators, research institutions, universities and other relevant organizations. The group has 136 members, including organizations from China and observers from such foreign companies as Alcatel, Ercisson, Fujitsu, Lucent and Nokia. The Ministry of Information Industry defines the scope of CWTS research.